Leica T is out, but for who?

You have summed up Leica perfectly. This new "T" is just another form of the special issue Hermes M9. A dressed up camera designed and priced for the wealthy, casual photographer. Asian manufacturers have so far surpassed Leica in terms of innovation that it would be useless for Leica to compete on that level. So it has positioned itself, as you succinctly put it, as the boutique camera manufacturer. 40 minutes worth of polishing a solid block of aluminum creates a beautiful, stylish body. It does nothing for image quality. I think it would be fun to shoot as a vacation camera but at those prices I'll have to continue to just think about it a long while more.

Since the box is so nice, and expensive Leica could offer a service which substitutes the internals every 2 or 3 years, so that it doesn't get (too) osolete. Modular should allow it: you extract the internals from the back, just like you put them inside